Vivian Denise Mauro is an American lady I met at the Casa Dom Inacio De Loyola in Brazil. On a sunny warm morning, we stood outside the Casa’s cafeteria and chatted like old friends, though we had just met.

Vivian told me that she first came to see John of God with a group of women from New York City in 2004. She wanted to know if God is real. At the casa, she received a special message “Vivian I love you.” It was God speaking to her directly.

After that, Vivian felt ecstatic, she was laughing and crying at the same time, and singing the Beetles Song “Love is all there is.” As the light of God shone in her life, she started living in the present, gained more energy and eventually started guiding other people to visit Abadiania.

Vivian would often find street dogs in Abadiania. This area in rural Brazil is stricken with poverty, and caring for domestic pets, let alone stray animals, is not the top priority. But Vivian connected with the dogs. She sensed them having the same feeling of abandonment that she suffered from as a child, well into her adulthood. She ended up adopting 2 Shepherd mix dogs from the street – one of them, who she named Lucky, had a tumor.

Lucky underwent many treatments, mainly chemotherapy, but finally got cured. Vivian raised USD 12,000 for his treatments and to fly him to New York with her. Lucky lived happily with Vivian for 3 years.

Then on, every time Vivian would come to Abadiania, she would try to rescue more dogs. “Ango and Sammy were the next two” she told me she has rescued 78 dogs now. Not only does Vivian drive around the villages following her intuition, capturing injured and diseased animals (in a taxi, because she doesn’t have a car), she takes them to veterinarians for rehabilitation, castration, wound care, and nurses pregnant ones. She generally does not pick up healthy dogs.

Vivian also has 10 dogs at home and feeds another 22 every day at the kennel she opened near her home. The location doesn’t have a water source, so she hauls 16 liters of water on her bike for 12 kilometer and delivers it to the dogs every single day.

Vivian has started a Stray Dog Resettlement Program where she sends rescued dogs abroad to whoever wants to adopt them. This Adopt and Fly procedure takes only 2 days and costs $500-600. She has also sent a cat to Germany. When I asked her how the animals from Abadiania have adapted to their new homes, she told me that these are special animals because they have good energy. Therefore, they behave well and lovingly adopt their families.

“In Brazil, there is not much awareness of neutering and spaying, or treating animals like family members as they do in the US,” says Vivian. There are no commercials or dog shows here that emphasize that animals have feelings. Her goal is to conduct workshops at elementary schools to educate kids about humane treatment of animals. In the meantime she has unofficially started an Association to Protect Animals of Abadiania and crowdsourcing to fund immunization against tick disease and new kennels. Click here to donate on her Go Fund Me page.

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Sucheta Rawal

Sucheta is an award winning food and travel writer, who has traveled to 70+ countries across 6 continents. She is also the founder and editor of 'Go Eat Give' and author of 'Beato Goes To' series of children's books on travel.
View all posts by Sucheta Rawal